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Thursday Till Sunday: A subtle but affecting drama about a Chilean family on a fateful road trip, Thursday Till Sunday has won an array of awards and accolades since it premiered in early 2012, thereby establishing Dominga Sotomayor as one of South America’s most promising young filmmakers.

Yet the movie’s Toronto engagement at the Carlton Cinemas — which starts July 26 — marks a homecoming of sorts for its 14-year-old star. Though she goes to school in Santiago, Santi Ahumada spent several years growing up here with her diplomat father. Only 11 when the movie was shot, Ahumada gives a quietly wrenching performance as Lucia, a girl with a backseat view of her parents’ disintegrating marriage.

Sitting in the Carlton on a recent afternoon alongside her understandably proud dad, Ahumada explains that she had no acting ambitions before being asked to play the role. (She knew the director through her friendship with Sotomayor’s little sister.) Nor did she necessarily know what the movie’s story was about, Sotomayor preferring to limit her instructions to the youngster. Says Ahumada, “Only when I saw it last year did I understand everything.”

Since Lucia has a limited awareness of the relationship tensions around her, the strategy was arguably for the best. It certainly adds to the unforced nature of Ahumada’s performance, as did the more demanding aspects of the many driving scenes. “It was really hard because there were a lot of hours in the car,” she says. “We were in the car from morning until it got dark. After a scene, we’d have to turn around the car and do it again.

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“It took a long time,” she adds.

It’s no wonder that Lucia’s family seems happiest during scenes set at a campground. “That was the most relaxing part,” she says. “We got there and there was shade and trees and grass. Before that, it was all road.”

Ahumada has done her own share of traveling in support of the film (she’ll be at the Carlton for question and answer sessions at this weekend’s screenings, too). She likes how Sotomayor wants people to have their own interpretations of the film, though the actress still finds it strange when people notice things that she hadn’t.

“In one scene, I have this shirt that has three birds in it, with two birds above and one bird below,” she says. “Someone asked if the shirt meant something, if the two birds were my parents and the other bird was me. Neither Dominga or I had thought about that when we picked the shirt!”

Toronto Animation Arts Festival International: Highlights among the local animation fest’s many screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox include a celebration of the work of the late stop-motion great Ray Harryhausen on July 28 at 4:45 p.m. A hit that helped drive the current boom for Chinese-made anime, Kuiba makes its North American theatrical premiere on July 27 at 7 p.m. Hot Docs also co-presents a screening of Persistence of Vision, a look at a never-finished pet project by Toronto-born animator Richard Williams — it plays July 28 at 2:30 p.m.

Hidden Film Festival: Audiences in London, Paris and Dublin are already hip to the Hidden Film Festival, a secretive showcase of super-fresh indie films. Moviegoers won’t know what’s on the Toronto slate until the contents are revealed at screenings at the Winchester on July 27 at 8 p.m. and the Humber Cinemas on July 28 at 10 a.m.

Mussels in Love: Viewers who like to mix cinema and shellfish can get their fill when Mussels in Love begins a run at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on July 26.

The Venice Syndrome: Threatened by a steep population decline and the toll of tourists on its fragile infrastructure, Venice faces an uncertain future according to this German doc, which also starts a run at the Bloor on July 26.

Music for Wilderness Lake: Among the events at Harbourfront Centre’s Classical V: Brass weekend are three free screenings of Music for Wilderness Lake, a 1980 doc on a seminal work of “environmental music” by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. An early effort by the team at Rhombus Media, it plays July 26 at 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Zone 2 and July 27 at 8 p.m. at the Lakeside Terrace.

Trinidad and Tobago Film Night: The week’s many Caribbean festivities include a special screening of two recent award-winners by Trinidadian-Canadian filmmakers. Janine Fung’s doc La Gaita: The Odyssey of Hope and Ian Harnarine’s terrific dramatic short Doubles With Slight Pepper play the Revue on July 31 at 7 p.m.

Fight Club: According to the first two rules of Fight Club, you shouldn’t even know about this. Nevertheless, David Fincher’s two-fisted 1999 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s cult novel plays the Most Wanted Mondays series at six Cineplex theatres on July 29 at 7 p.m. (The Yonge-Dundas location hosts more screenings July 30-Aug. 1.)

Outdoor Screenings: The perfect reason for a summer road trip for any adventurous moviegoer, the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film runs Aug. 1 to 5 in a variety of unique Durham-area locales, including the Hanover Drive-In. As for outdoor options in Toronto, the Christie Pits Film Festival presents The Last Waltz on July 28, Yonge-Dundas Square hangs out with The Goonies on July 30, Harbourfront Centre’s Free Flicks rocks hard with Streets of Fire on July 31, TIFF in the Park invites you to swoon over The Way We Were on July 31 and the Open Roof Festival serves up funky music by Yuka and the skateboarding doc Bones Brigade on Aug. 1.

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